1. Field of the Disclosure
The following is directed to abrasive articles, and particularly directed to bonded abrasive articles including a reaction agent within the bond material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Abrasives used in machining applications typically include bonded abrasive articles and coated abrasive articles. Coated abrasive articles generally include a layered article including a backing and an adhesive coat to fix abrasive grains to the backing, the most common example of which is sandpaper. Bonded abrasive tools consist of rigid, and typically monolithic, three-dimensional, abrasive composites in the form of wheels, discs, segments, mounted points, hones and other tool shapes, which can be mounted onto a machining apparatus, such as a grinding or polishing apparatus. Such bonded abrasive tools usually have three phases including abrasive grains, bond material, and porosity, and can be manufactured in a variety of ‘grades’ and ‘structures’ that have been defined according to practice in the art by the relative hardness and density of the abrasive composite (grade) and by the volume percentage of abrasive grain, bond, and porosity within the composite (structure).
Bonded abrasive tools are particularly useful in grinding and polishing hard materials, such as single crystal materials typically used in electronics and optics industries. For example, one such material is sapphire, used as windows for infrared and microwave systems, optical transmission windows for ultraviolet to near infrared light, light emitting diodes, ruby lasers, laser diodes, and even as substrates for microelectronic integrated circuit applications, growth of superconducting compounds, and formation of semiconducting materials, such gallium nitride and the like.
Grinding and polishing of single crystal materials, such as sapphire, is an extremely slow and laborious process. Aggressive abrasive processes and materials must be utilized to achieve acceptable polishing rates, and yet such processes put the integrity of the single crystal material at risk for damage and contamination. Accordingly, a need exists in the art for methods and articles for grinding and polishing hard, single crystal materials.